Board says it only followed provincial guidelines for placing children outside the region

The Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services says it will fully co-operate with an investigation into the treatment of Inuit children in Montreal-area foster homes.

Quebec’s Human Rights and Youth Commission launched the investigation in December after hearing allegations that Nunavik youth were prevented from speaking Inuktitut in the West Island youth centres where they were placed in care.

The commission is also trying to determine if those youth were reassigned social workers when they were transferred from care in Nunavik to Montreal.

For its part, the health board said in a Jan. 10 email to Nunatsiaq News that it follows provincial guidelines anytime a child is moved into care outside the region.